In order for a lobsterman to retrieve his trap from the ocean floor, sometimes several hundred feet down, he has a buoy floating on the surface to attach a rope from the trap so as to pull the rope. The trap can be retrieved from the ocean floor. In states where there are several thousand lobstermen, each lobsterman has his own unique color pattern on his buoy to identify their traps. This is done by painting their buoys with paint in a pattern that is their own identification and in most cases the buoys have to be painted every year.